The Messengers and Norbit

The Messengers: The latest attempt to transplant Asian-horror techniques onto American soil lacks the atmosphere of dread we've come to expect after The Ring and The Grudge. Dylan McDermott and Penelope Ann Miller play a Chicago couple who drag their teenage kids to the hinterlands so that Dad can grow sunflowers, but it's not long before the younger members of the family start seeing dead people.

Norbit: Eddie Murphy slaps on the latex to play both a nice-guy nerd and his two-tons-of-fun monster of a wife. It's a distinctly un-PC gross-out comedy in which the characters are so rude and crude that we have no emotional stake in anybody.